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Thursday, December 20, 2012

POP Charger Project To Give Out Full Refunds

Remember the POP Charger, that mega-recharging device being developed by Edison Junior? Well, apparently, it's not happening. Edison Junior said that it is refunding the full, $139,170 raised in its Kickstarter campaign to develop the device, after the company received word from Apple that it would not be approved to the use the new Apple Lightning charger as part of the device. Edison Junior, which is headed by serial entrepreneur Jamie Siminoff, said that it had applied to Apple to include two Lightning chargers as part of the device--required for new Apple devices--but was denied approval by Apple. As a result, Edison Junior said it will refund 100 percent of the money raised for the project, including credit card feeds (3%) and Kickstarter fees (5%), at a cost of over $11,000 to the company. Jamie Siminoff said in a note to backers that it decided to refund the full amount because the POP can no longer "fulfill its true promise" since it could not include the Lightning Charger interface. Edison Junior also said it is asking Kickstarter to return the 5% fee they collected. Due to the whole issue with refunds on Kickstarter, however, Edison Junior said it has created its own, Kickstarter-like crowdfunding site called Christie Street, to specifically address the complexities such as refunds that might occur with products, with a specific focus on electronic products.